In conclusion, "How to Maintain Eye Contact" by Robert Wood Lynn is a beautiful collection of poems that masterfully captures the essence of human connection and the unspoken emotions that lie beneath the surface. If you're seeking a book that offers a unique and poetic exploration of our interactions and relationships, this collection provides a touching and reflective journey that will leave you contemplating the beauty of human communication.

The poems didn’t speak to me, they’re not memorable. At first, they didn’t feel like poems, they simply felt like prose in verse, if that makes sense – as if they were written in text and then broken to match the poetry style. This simply wasn’t the book for me.

Parts of this book definitely resonated with me. I did get lost a few times, or maybe didn't quite get the message, but I think that's just part of poetry

I'll be honest, I requested this strictly because the cover is SO cute. I did have fun reading this also!

This book was middle of the road as a poetry collection. It wasn't my favorite, but it did have a few memorable and quotable lines in it.

A good second collection from a promising voice in poetry. I didn't like it as much as his first collection, but that is likely due to the intense personal connection I have to it. This one is good, just not as good. I'd still recommend.

I truly enjoy narrative poems that are raw and powerful, meaning this collection was truly a gift.

Thanks to Netgalley for this advanced reading copy.

a book very delicately thoughtout and beautiful. Not all the poems were for me, but the ones that were are very striking and memorable. Like looking through a window.

"How to maintain eye contact" was a pleasant if not very memorable read - consisting mainly of slice-of-life poems that would be perfect for readers that are taking their first steps towards exploring the world of poetry.

This was great. With a few verses, Lynn is able to put feelings into words that are impossible to describe.
Not all poems were for me. But maybe they will be for someone else, and that‘s what matters.

I already think this will be one of the best books of the year. Funny, conversational yet mind expanding, mordant and thoughtful. These were great poems.

“How to maintain eye contact” is a collection of windows into moments of life. Quiet and meaningful stories and moments are scattered through these pages.

This book was good. I'm a fan of poetry that is less abstract, and easier to understand. However, it's not so simple that it doesn't still have a poetic flow. It was a pretty easy read, although some of the poems were not my favorite, appearing a little too dense in comparison to others. However, over all I would give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

This poetry didn't really speak to me at all, and though at the time of reading I could pick out some lines I liked, I have remembered none of them. If you like poetry that is very prose-like, you will enjoy this collection for sure. Otherwise, you probably will not.

I really surprised myself by how much I enjoyed this poetry collection - I sometimes find poetry hard to understand if it is ambiguous, experimental or inaccessible. But I just loved some of the poems in this collection (At the Coffeeshop on Rogers, On my Way Home from the Hospital, and Poem Ending in a Public Service Announcement). They were very funny, easy to read, resonated a lot with me and were so sweet! I love it when authors describe mundane, everyday situations in a way that feels so real, relatable and engaging and I feel like the poet did a great job here. Some of the poems were a bit out of my comfort zone (no punctuation… etc but the joys of a collection is you don’t have to love all of them to get something out of it! 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

2.5 ⭐️

This poetry collection was alright, I did expect to get more from it but I guess I’m glad I read it. It’s split into three sections: rehearsals for being, departure and apocalypse. The first two didn’t really have much to connect them I found but last was the most consistent and my favourite. In this section Wood Lyn talks about the end of the world and how when all the ice melts there’d be no more strangers, what we done wrong and then how to rebuild better with what’s left behind - kinda-ish? I dunno it was the best of a mediocre bunch. The only things I took from sections one and two were about the rules/expeditions that are placed on people before being born and how this is something we don’t really consent to but via every breath do (kinda yh? Make sense?) and this idea we only have one billion heartbeats. Not too much else to really expand on with this book. It was marketed as a bit funny/witty but I didn’t get that, there isn’t much lining the poems in style or meaning but is a recurring motif of animal (specifically cat) death with is mentioned and it’s something I don’t like reading - it’s not explicit but still…

Would recommend if want a short collection to get through but I personally didn’t gain much or like these poems.

Una lectura que disfrutas. El título me llamó la atención, y la colección de poemas no resonó conmigo, pero aún así lo disfruté. Fue una lectura rápida.

i did not expect to enjoy this as much as i did :0 i've always liked poetry but i never buy any poetry books because they always feel either too intellectual for my understanding, or too dull - but i surprisingly really enjoyed these !!

my favourite was 'in praise of lying to children specifically' but i also loved 'on wed they came on the news' and 'inscription for the surface of the moon'

overall, i love how they were written and i'd love to read more from the author !

Thank you NetGalley, Button Poetry, Robert Wood Lynn and team for the free e-copy.

It's not easy for me to rate poetry/diaries because I feel like a big part of it is deeply personal and tends to not make sense to many other than the author themselves. Personally, I write and know that if I were to publish some of my poems, there might be people who wouldn't connect to my experience.

Having said this, that's exactly what happened to me reading this book. I didn't connect with it as profounly as I thought I would after reading the title, the reviews and the blurb. The idea of not maintaining eye contact really pulled me in, but I found it wasn't what I was expecting.

Unfortunately, most of the poems felt like the meaning flew way over my head, and that made it almost nonsensical for me. I grasped some of the ideas th author was communicating, but the way in which they were written confused me.

Nonetheless, there were some poems I understood and connected with like 'the museums of maintenance', 'on wednesday they came on the news' and 'the heartbeat hypothesis'.

Robert's poems might not be for everyone, definitely not for me, since I had a very hard time understanding many of them - in my opinion, it fell a little flat when stablishing a connection to the reader, it was difficult to follow his thoughts almost like a stream of consciousness or many ideas arranged together.

On the one hand, I admired it for what it felt like - almost as if i was reading my notes app where I dump every thought I need to express. On the other hand, I just couldn't keep up with most of the ideas.

Again, thanks for the opportunity to review this. Sadly, it wasn't my cup of tea but it was a good experience and I will definitely give Robert's writing another chance in the future!

Stars: 2.5

Thank you to Button Poetry and Netgalley for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a quick (and surprising) read, and overall, I really enjoyed it. (Also, the cover is fantastic.)

After reading the blurb, I assumed each section would be broken up into the following categories: "interior uncertainty, interpersonal uncertainty and uncertainty at a larger scale." The collection WAS broken up into three sections, but with different categories. (Note: uncertainty was a major theme in the collection, but I was surprised at how the poems were grouped after reading the blurb. I didn't mind the groupings; it was just surprising considering the language of the description.)

There were a few standouts in the collection, and several beautiful lines worthy of highlighting on an Instagram reel, picture collages and all.

The collection offers a scrapbook of moments in the lives of individual citizens, set against the backdrop of macro issues impacting humanity at large. Even while addressing several heavy topics, the poet was able to endear readers with his irreverence and informality. This made it less of a gloomy, speculative work, and more of a redemptive call to action. (Ecological disaster/ environmental degradation were present themes.)

This may be a great choice for someone is looking to read more poetry; I found the language to be quite accessible. However, multiple re-reads would serve any reader well.

How to Maintain Eye Contact brought a couple of questions to mind:
How do we (as individuals) relate to one another?
What would we miss if the world were to end tomorrow?

I'll ponder.